Surviving = Overcoming

"He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21)

I was reminded this week of the relationship between "surviving" and "overcoming," beloved, as Bev and I attended the annual Survivors' Banquet for victims of cancer. As I think about her own battle with breast cancer and the reality that she is, indeed, an 11-year survivor, I cannot help but think of her as a true "overcomer"!

In Jesus' words to the 7 churches of Asia, He repeated this conditional phrase in each case - "he who overcomes." When we think of "overcoming," we think instantly of ultimate victory, of enduring to the end, of winning a battle. Yet when we think of "surviving" we only think of getting by or of just making it through somehow, as in "I can't believe I survived another week at work!" It has occurred to me, beloved, that they actually express one and the same thought.

In the case of any person's battle with disease, to be a "survivor" is to be victorious. It is to be an overcomer. And in our spiritual walk before the world, to "survive" is to win the ultimate victory against Satan, to walk in such a way that people can see Jesus Christ in us. In John's letters to the 7 churches, we find wonderful promises for all true overcomers, for all true survivors. Consider them with me briefly:

"To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7)

"He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death" (Revelation 2:11b)

"To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it" (Revelation 2:17b)

"And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations" (Revelation 2:26)

"He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels" (Revelation 3:5)

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name" (Revelation 3:12)

Are you a spiritual "survivor," beloved? If so, then you are one of God's "overcomers"! His Word makes it clear that only those who endure to the end will truly be saved. Faith in Jesus Christ is not a mere moment in time, beloved - a bent knee, a bowed head, a dip into the baptismal pool and a name on a church roll - it is a life of faithfulness, a steady consistent walk in obedience to Christ and to the leading of the Holy Spirit within. To be a "survivor" is, then, the essence of what it means to be a Christian!

Ron